Four Good Things #3
The value of playful questions, making restful lists, and trying new things
Good news: I’ve completed the last major revisions for my new book. It’s a devotional walk through the church year, and it’ll come your way later this year, Lord willing. More to come! I’m definitely giving y’all the insider scoop soon as there’s more to share.
#1 — Rapt Interviews
The folks at Rapt steer clear of the generic interview monotony. Playful and creative questions are their calling card.
Check out my recent interview with them — I share a pretty embarrassing story that has to do with an Avengers movie and wax poetic about pickup hoops (see below).
“Stepping onto the court is like entering a new world where there’s an instant bond, a fellowship of the roundball and a savoring of the game we love and also know at some point will pass us by. Both life and basketball are like a vapor.”
The real good stuff however is in their interviews with folks like artist Makoto Fujimura, psychiatrist Curt Thompson, and professor and author Jessica Hooten Wilson.
#2 — The ministry of gifting books
A friend is culling down his theological library of 3,000+ books. Here’s a fraction of his stash:
I came away with all of Barth’s Church Dogmatics (already had them digitally but now in print!) and this nice box haul:
My friend’s kindness challenged me to think about how some of the books on my shelf, good as they are, might be best placed in the hands of someone else.
Maybe that’s something for you to consider, too?
One more good thing on the book front: an excerpt from the mountain-top glory of Barth’s Church Dogmatics IV.
Listen to him expound the incarnation and God in Christ’s movement toward us in the language of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son:
In the fact that God is gracious to man, all the limitations of man are God’s limitations, all his weaknesses, and more, all his perversities are His. In being gracious to man in Jesus Christ, God acknowledges man; He accepts responsibility for his being and nature. He remains Himself. He does not cease to be God. But He does not hold aloof.
In being gracious to man in Jesus Christ, He also goes into the far country, into the evil society of this being which is not God and against God. He does not shrink from him. He does not pass him by as did the priest and the Levite the man who had fallen among thieves. He does not leave him to his own devices. He makes his situation His own. He does not forfeit anything by doing this. In being neighbour to man, in order to deal with him and act towards him as such, He does not need to fear for His Godhead.
On the contrary. We will mention at once the thought which will be decisive and basic in this section, that God shows Himself to be the great and true God in the fact that He can and will let His grace bear this cost, that He is capable and willing and ready for this condescension, this act of extravagance, this far journey.
What marks out God above all false gods is that they are not capable and ready for this. In their otherworldliness and supernaturalness and otherness, etc., the gods are a reflection of the human pride which will not unbend, which will not stoop to that which is beneath it. God is not proud. In His high majesty He is humble. It is in this high humility that He speaks and acts as the God who reconciles the world to Himself. It is under this aspect first that we must consider the history of the atonement.
#3 - Being intentional about what’s restful and what’s not
If the remainder of 2025 is going to feel as long, fraught, and arduous as January then we’d better think well about holistic rest.
Jesus gives us himself as rest (Matt. 11:28) and we’re wise to receive that promise and attendant practices.
Tamara Hill Murphy’s honest and thoughtful reflections on what gives rest (and what’s unrestful) serve as a potent primer for individual reflection.
#4 - Watching those you love bravely try new things
On a whim, my eldest son jumped onto his middle school wrestling team. His previous wrestling experience?
Watching WWE and bodyslamming his dad at home.
Maybe for you — or someone in your inner circle — a new creative endeavor, class, or hobby is one way to experience goodness this year. You won’t know until you — or they, by your encouragement — give it a try.
Bonus Good Thing: I linked up with my friends over at Think Christian crew to talk about some of the best music of 2024. I shared a bit about the sacred, amidst the profane, in Kendrick Lamar’s GNX. Available wherever you get your podcast on.
I am honored to be included in this list of so many good things!